With legislation pending on whether to ask Denver voters to approve a 5 percent tax on retail marijuana sales, the Denver City Council on Monday will consider setting a host of rules and regulations for the new industry.

The council meets Monday afternoon in a special committee to settle 39 issues to set up the framework of retail marijuana in the city.

• Should the city allow only outright conversion of medical-marijuana dispensaries into retail stores and not allow co-location or shared space?

Ralph Morgan helps customers find the strain of marijuana they want at Organa Labs in Denver on March 19, 2013. The Denver City Council is debating how laws governing retail marijuana shops will impact dispensaries. (Joe Amon, Denver Post file)

• Should public hearings be required for conversion or co-location of dispensaries into retail stores?

• Should the city set specific hours for the retail shops to operate?

"This is going to be like watching sausage being made," said Councilman Charlie Brown, who chairs the committee. "This is going to be nitty-gritty, line-by-line going through the issues."

Brown doubts there will be council consensus on many issues.

Councilman Paul Lopez has been pushing an amendment requiring that marijuana retail stores be at least 2,500 feet from each other and 2,500 feet from a school, child care center or drug and alcohol facility.

The distance rule now for medical-marijuana dispensaries is 1,000 feet.

Advertisement

Brown said he disagrees with Lopez's distance argument, saying that would be nearly a half-mile between stores and would be unfair to the businesses.

Lopez is putting in four different amendments.

"The purpose it to allow responsible businesses to succeed, and to protect neighborhoods and children from preventing an undue concentration of pot shops," Lopez said.

The city is also expected to impose a two-year window in which only existing medical-marijuana businesses can open retail shops. That will allow the city to learn as it goes, Brown said.

Amber Bacca, store manager at the Colorado Harvest Company, prepares marijunan for sale at the medical marijuana dispensary on March 19, 2013. The Denver City Council is debating how laws governing retail marijuana shops will impact dispensaries. (Joe Amon, Denver Post file)

"We will learn a lot in this transition period," Brown said. "We will do everything we can to protect the public and have a fair tax system and good regulatory system. At the same time, we want to be firm and fair with the businesses. The whole world is watching."

The council would have to formally approve the changes by Sept. 23 to make deadlines imposed by Amendment 64 — which legalized marijuana for adults in a November 2012 vote.

On Aug. 19, the council will take up the issue of whether to put a question on the November ballot about taxing sales of retail marijuana. A public hearing on the measure will be Aug. 26, followed by a final vote.

The council wants to set a floating tax rate that could go up to 15 percent but would start at 5 percent this year.

Not all kids who play baseball are uniformed with fancy script across their chests, traveling to $1,000 instructional camps and drilled how to properly hit the cut-off man. Some kids just play to play.

The Cannabist Newsletter

Sign up to receive The Post's all-things-cannabis newsletter, delivering breaking news on marijuana developments and in-depth culture pieces on pot's evolving role in our day-to-day lives. From our new marijuana news site, The Cannabist.